It is with great interest that I have been following the current dog park debates in Oak Park and River Forest. The related issue of the possibility of dog parks on Cook County forest preserve property is not new. Approximately five years ago, I helped sponsor a dog park at the Beck Lake forest preserves near Glenview.

A group of self-titled "Concerned Neighbors" oppose the proposed addition to the Vineyard Church at Jackson and Wesley in Oak Park. These neighbors should be careful what they ask for?#34;they just might get it.

I read with great interest your editorial (April 4) on management/employee relations at Oak Park Village Hall. I would like to inform you of the latest development. The Streets Department has worked nearly 2 1/2 years without a contract.

Without the freedom to vote, all other freedoms are illusory. In one act of ultimate incompetence, Cook County Clerk David Orr, whose most important role is ensuring the sanctity of the electoral process, has voted for his own resignation.

When I was growing up on the North Side of Chicago, I attended a public elementary school. And, as is frequently the case, I and other kids of modest size and strength had to deal with a really big kid who delighted in being a bully. Mike was bigger than everyone else.

Jack Crowe's May 10 column titled, "There's no better reality TV than a village board meeting" was a very entertaining piece?#34;in fact, near perfect. However, in referring to our beloved village as the "People's Republic of Oak Park," I fear that his reference was a bit short. I have always heard others refer to it as, "The People's FEDERAL Republic of Oak Park."

My reflections on leaving the pen and pencil after four score years, and entering the age of octogenarians in a technological know-how society: I can still remember how I resisted learning about the computer age, and said "No" whenever my principal brought it up. I answered: Then came the dreaded day I unwrapped a package on my desk containing "Windows for Dummies." Here I sit in front of a computer screen about to begin a WORD document.